


Fights that Never End

by RhiD29



Series: Demigod athlete [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Women's Hockey RPF
Genre: Camp Half-Blood
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-06
Updated: 2018-05-06
Packaged: 2019-05-03 06:42:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14563257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhiD29/pseuds/RhiD29
Summary: Alina Müller is a hockey player form Switzerland. She even has the perfect opportunity to represent her country: being one of their best players at almost 16, she gets a bronze medal in Sochi, which will turn into an interesting tool for Alina, but will also reveal something major. She learns that her father hid to her family a big part of who she is. And now, she has to spend all her summers, and maybe the whole year, in a camp for kids like her to train… in the United States. Will she make friend despite the language barrier? Will she learn enough in one summer to be able to come back in her native Switzerland and being able to defend herself from monsters? Will she have to quit playing the sport that gave her a powerful weapon she never thought of having? Because what’s the point of leaving Camp Half-Blood if you’re going to die, unable to survive against monsters?





	1. The greatest achievement I’ll ever have

Alina looked around her. Counted the teammates getting into the coaches’ office. Tried to console those coming back crying. And then it hit her. They were now 21 on the roster. She had made it? No, she probably had counted wrong. She was one of the next player called into a meeting. She’d know quite soon. She started counting again, just to make sure, while Florence was in the office. Everyone knew she was going to be the starting goalie, if not the only one playing. She had not counted wrong, but she didn’t want to give herself too much hopes. They could decide to bring someone else than what they tested, right?

Florence finally went out, as well as the coaches.

              “Alina Müller.”

There it was. The moment of truth. She entered in the office. She was scared. She was the youngest of the team. She didn’t expect to make the team. The national team of Switzerland. It was huge! She was not even 16!

She sat and waited. She felt less stressed than an hour before, but still. She had barely slept the previous nights, scared of hearing, “you’re cut”. But here she was with a bit of hope.

              “We are happy to learn you that you will be on the Olympic team. You’ve impressed us a lot. Congratulation, you are coming with us in Sochi.”

Alina couldn’t believe it. She started crying. She was relieved, and for some reason, that’s how the stress went away. She just wanted to jump into her coaches’ arms. Or scream.

She left the room after a few minutes. She needed to calm herself first. Because she knew that even if she was very excited and happy about being selected, she had teammates that just had got cut from the team when they thought they’d make it.

She joined her teammates. They were saying goodbye to the cut girls. Alina felt weird about it. She knew she was the one in the team instead of those girls, but at the same time, she didn’t make the decision, they couldn’t blame her or anything. Why did she feel bad?

She called her parents by videocall. Her smile was quite obvious, and her parents knew that it was _the day_.

              “Did you meet the coaches yet?” her mother asked.

Alina just nodded. She knew if she talked, she would either cry, or scream of joy, but her teammates were also talking to their parents, so she didn’t want to be the center of the attention.

              “I’m going to be an Olympian! I’m going to the Olympics. I’m not going to get that much of playtime, but I’ll take whatever they give me anyway! I never thought I’d go. I’m pretty sure I’ll be the youngest of all hockey players, and maybe the youngest Suisse.”

They’ve talked for a few minutes, and Alina’s excitement started to show. But it was like she didn’t really believe it was true. Like she was scared something would turn wrong and she would be told to stay in Zurich.

Lara Stalder joined her after she hung up.

              “I see you made the team too. I’m happy. I wasn’t that sure I’d go, you know I’m the second youngest here.”

Alina asked her if she wanted to go celebrate with her, or if she preferred spending time with her family. The blond girl decided to go out with Alina. Of course, Alina could not go into bars, but she wanted to have some fun anyway. She was a teenager after all!

She couldn’t wait to tell all her friends the next day at school that she was going to travel in Russia. She was going to take part in the most seen competition, as an athlete. It was still weird for her to say that, even if representing her country had always been in her mind. It was her dream since she had first made a Switzerland camp.

She went out with Lara and Janine Alder, a goaltender. They went in a café to celebrate. It was fun. Some teammates would have preferred going to a bar or a club, but Alina was underage so it was a bit impossible. Who said she needed alcohol to have fun?

She went home not that late, and her parents were waiting for her. As soon as she stepped in the house, they hugged her and celebrated. It felt good. Some hours before, she was sure she’d come home to cry in her mother’s arms.

The lack of sleep showed quite fast, and she went to bed not long after coming home, and fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillow.

The alarm woke her up, and it took everything to the teen to get up. She had not yet done her homework, and knew she had to keep up on this. Usually, her mother would tell her to do them before she gets to the arena, but with National team camps, she had had difficulty keeping up with all her works. She knew she had to do way better before leaving for Russia. An Olympic tournament was not the best place to bring school works. With games and interviews and team meetings and all the things happening there, she didn’t even know how she’d find an hour to open a book to do maths.

She ate her breakfast the fastest she could and started her math homework before having to leave for school. She had a bus to take, so she’d get most of the rest done there. She was lucky, she was not car sick. A friend of hers had headaches if she looked down in a car or any other type of transport.

She walked into the school and immediately searched for her friends. They were not at their lockers yet. She tried hiding the disappointment. She sat there, and took her math book. She had time to solve a problem or two before the time to head to her class. She brought her books during her classes the whole day.

She had done half a problem when she heard,

              “Alina, can I access my locker? You’re blocking the way! It’s not your kind to do your homework once in school, what’s going on, are you sick?”

              “No. I totally forgot about them! I went to the arena for the camp, you know how stressed I was, I just couldn’t do any work going there. I was so scared… I was sure I’d get cut.”

              “I totally forgot yesterday was the day they chose the team! Wait… you made it?”

Alina stood up to let her friend use her locker, and couldn’t hide the excitement anymore.

              “Guess who is heading to Sochi!”

Some student turned their heads as she said that, but probably didn’t make a case out of it. Most people didn’t even know where the next Games were held. And if those students knew about it, they probably assumed she was just a spectator.

Her friend got so excited they did not realise it was time to head to their classes. They had to run to make it in time.

              “Ms. Müller, that was just in time…” the teacher commented. She didn’t like that one. And seriously, she was always on time, usually, was this comment necessary?

She sat in silence and opened her science book. She just wanted to roll her eyes, but she noticed the teacher was looking at her.

When the class was over, she waited for everyone to leave. She had to tell the teacher about her missing a few weeks. He obviously gave her a lot of things to do, and suggested she stayed that day after school so he can teach her the things students would see during her absence.

              “You will miss an exam. Can I know why you are leaving, because there has to be a good reason to miss exams. And a month is quite long, you will probably have a few in other subjects.”

Alina explained what was happening, and why she did not know before. She didn’t really expect to make the team.

Her other teachers were all nice about everything. Some told her not to worry too much about works. But others gave her piles to do. At least, everyone one the team had gone through high school, so if she needed help, there was probably someone on the 20 other players that could explain.

She called her brother between two classes in the morning to announce the big news. Mirco was more than excited for her.

              “It’s crazy how you started playing to do like me, and now you are better than I am.”

              “You were drafted by an NHL team, why am I supposed to be better?”

              “I’ll never have an invitation to the Olympics. And I am not playing with the Sharks yet.”

Talking with Mirco was her best moment of the day. But he was living on the West coast of the United States, so she had to think about jet lag every time she’d want to talk to him. It made things hard to confide her feeling to her brothers, with all those students around. Or when something happened with friends or parents and she needed her big brother. She couldn’t just knock at his bedroom door now. Sometimes, it was hard. But he had the right to follow his dream too.

During the following days, she spent all her time either working on school related things or training. She had no time for her friends. She had to take some advance for school. And training for the Olympics was not something to take lightly. Either at the gym or at the arena, she made sure to give the best she could. And think of nothing else. At school, during physical education classes, she asked to go to the library. If she wanted to keep the grades up coming back from the competition, she had to take every minute she could for homework. And the phys. ed. teacher knew she was training a lot lately, the hour practicing whatever sport at school was not so useful. Alina’s body was already aching from all the time spent on the ice and at the gym in the last weeks, it was just relieving knowing she could just do maths in silence instead of risking injuring herself by doing too much.

Finally, travel day arrived. Alina had asked pieces of advice on what to bring to teammates. She just added a few school books. She had done more than 80 % of what she had to, but there were a few things she had not had the time to do yet. She would be surprised she’d have time to during the games, but they were getting there a few days before opening ceremony, so maybe she could have an afternoon.

The flight was ok. It was not too long, which was nice. She couldn’t wait to see the Olympic village. Seeing it on TV and in real life, it was probably two different things. Florence, as well as Julia, gave her a few tips and had told her about their first Olympic experience. But still, Alina didn’t really know what she was heading into.

The first thing she realised is that Sochi was not that cold. Actually, it felt like… 20 °C. In February! She thought it was supposed to be _winter_ Olympic Games… in Russia! Did they choose the hottest place in the north country? Because it didn’t make sense to the Swiss player.

The village was quite nice . Alina didn’t know what she expected from it. Competition sites looked fabulous. Some athletes complained about room quality, but Alina’s was completely ok. Wi-fi was not the best, but she couldn’t take the time to go on the internet too often. Call her family and things like that, yeah, but she didn’t want to get too much distracted form the competition. She was one of the only players to have works.

After a few days, it was the ceremony. Alina couldn’t wait to be in the stadium with all those athletes. To enter with her country. She knew most of the show of the ceremony would be before their entrance, and she hoped to see a beautiful ceremony anyway. The waiting to enter in the building was long. Then, they waited again, and it felt forever. Could they just be there already? The veterans of the team told them they had to go in order of country and it could be long. Switzerland was not at all the first to enter. Even with their Russian name.

They were finally there. It was so big Alina felt like a spider in a living room. There was a lot of people. Alina felt special. It hit her: she was an Olympian. Officially. She could injure herself tomorrow, but she’d still be an Olympian. At 15. Hopefully, there would be some more to come, but Alina had to play her first game first. She took a few selfies with some teammates, filmed a little. It was just way too crazy. There she was, on the world’s biggest stage. She couldn’t get this out of her head. It was stressful to think she’d play defending gold medal Canada the next day, but it was true. The Caroline Ouellette, Hayley Wickenheiser she saw playing on TV growing up, along with Hilary Knight, and Julie Chu for USA… They knew the only game they’d maybe have a chance would be the third one, against Finland. And they were also hoping to win their quarters in order to have a chance at the bronze medal. That was the Suisse goal: repeat what they had done less than two years before in World championship.

They had fun until it was time to go to bed. And even there, Alina felt she’d never fall asleep. She was way too excited. And going to bed so she can be great the next day for the game made her nervous a bit. Her first Olympic game was the next day. Stress was coming a little. Even if she trusted herself to play well. Even if she trusted Schelling more than anything. She knew they would have one of the hardest game.

They opened against Canada. And lost badly. They were the defending gold medalists. And everyone in the women’s hockey world knew it: there was Canada and USA in top standings, and then the rest. That was rare another national team would beat them, it happened, but it was rare. One year, Sweden took home silver, after beating USA in shootouts in Semis. It was already 8 years before. Finland had also beaten USA in November, at the Four Nation Cup. If it had happened another time that USA and Canada were not the two first countries, Alina was not aware.

Alina wasn’t used to that much attention. Interviews were weird for the youngest player. To her pleasure, she was mostly ignored, Florence and the Marty twins were getting most of the journalists’ attention, and Alina always passed when they were interviewed, hoping no one would stop her. She was quite shy, and her English, not so good. Unless it was someone interviewing her in German, she was screwed.

The other preliminary round games didn’t go much better. They lost to USA the same way than they lost to Canada, and Florence was very disappointed with the number of pucks she let in. After two periods, they were already talking about resting some players for the game against Finland. It was their best shot to win a game before the quarters.

It didn’t happen either. Finland won, but this time, it was close. A goalie battle. Both team were quite equal in the ice. But Noora Räty was stronger that night. The team even needed to go with extra time. Alina thought her team could do it and win a game. But Finland had the same plan and managed to get a third goal count. Alina knew Florence would feel bad for that one. 3-2 Finland.

The first one to talk in the locker room was Julia.

              “We need to focus on the quarterfinals now. It doesn’t matter if we lost that one, we will win against Russia. That’s the one that count. We can win them in their own country. We know we are stronger than them.”

Alina smiled. They could do it. She left the locker room thinking she had to rest to have a good quarter final. She accidently bumped into a Finland athlete near the Suisse house.

              “You’re the youngest player of the tournament, right? You played quite well, when you were on the ice. I was in the stands watching. At least, you, you are playing.”

Alina made a shy smile. Who was that blond girl? Was she a goalie, an injured player that Finland replaced, or a fan that wants to play in the next Olympics?

She finally presented her self as Finland third goalie, Eveliina. Now Alina understood. If Finland coach was doing like Switzerland’s, Noora Räty was going to start all their games, so even the second goalie wouldn’t play. Eveliina was watching with the families. She looked to be a few years older than Alina.

              “Good luck in quarters. It would be nice seeing each other in bronze final,” Alina said. She knew the teams were equal, Switzerland could win it if they faced again. But Switzerland had to face the host nation, and Finland their eternal rival Sweden before, and Alina knew that when the puck dropped, anything could happen. They had lost everything up to now, but Alina was motivated not to lose the quarters. And she hoped the team was as motivated as her.

Alina returned to her room after eating. A lot of athletes were there, but like usual, Alina sat with her team. She didn’t feel like talking that much with other athletes. Some would take advantage of the Olympics to flirt, but the hockey tournament was not over yet, it was not a good idea. Plus, most athletes were 10 years older than her. Not the right place to find a boyfriend!

They had a day off the next day, and Alina was happy that she could finally see her family. Her parents had made the trip. She wished Mirco was there too, but he was in the United States, in the middle of his season. Alina and her parents went to cheer on Switzerland, to do an activity.

That night, she made a very unexpected meeting. She recognized PK Subban. He was with a Canadian teammate. Alina sometimes watched them. She asked for a picture, with a shy smile. Then sent it to her brother. _Who knows, you might play against them soon!_ And posted it on her social media profiles. Or course!

It was finally quarter final day, and Alina started to get nervous. They _had_ to win this one. They didn’t have the choice to. But the feeling went away a little when she stepped on the ice for warm-ups. And when the game started, Alina was ready. She followed the coach’s instruction like she could. Tried helping the team as much as she could. Switzerland were starting quite well. And after 10 minutes, they were up one goal. A good goal by Stephanie Marty, on a pass Alina had made. She had her first Olympic point, and the team was leading in the quarterfinal! It was never a bad thing to lead.

The game was quite equal, and Florence stayed strong in net. And whatever Switzerland tried, it didn’t go in another time. But the team felt they could win the game if they continued on the same beat. The crowd was quite full, probably at the ¾ of capacity. It showed that it was the host nation, all they heard was cheers for Russia. They would not give the host a chance to medal.

In the last minutes of play, Russia pulled out their goalie in hope to go in overtime. Instead, Lara Stalder put another one for her country, making the game 2-0 with about 20 seconds to do. They had done it, they were going to semi finals. They would get crushed by Canada, but it didn’t matter.

The semifinals ended up 3-1 in favor of Canada. Th score didn’t reflect that well the game. It could have been way worse, but Florence stayed strong. They couldn’t lie, they were there because of Florence Schelling being Florence Schelling. She was one of the reasons they were in group A. Their worst scenario would be the goalie injured.

Alina took the next day to try to rest the more she could. They were going for the bronze medal game wanting to win it. The last thing they wanted was to lose. They had a practice and video session. Alina hung out with her friends on the team. They had interviews. Alina even got one in French. It didn’t look convincing, but Alina did her best.

She had difficulty sleeping that night. She was more nervous that she was letting people know. The stakes were high. And even know she was not the star player or anything, she still had a job to do and wanted to give her 200 %. Not to help, when she finally succeeded to fall asleep, she dreamed she couldn’t skate and leave the ice when the coach called for a line change. No matter how much she tried, she would fall on the ice every time she got up. Then, they game was over, they had lost, and everybody put the blame on her. “Alina played so bad it’s her fault if we don’t have the bronze,” they said in the locker room.

She woke up from her nightmare. Looked at the clock. 3 AM. The night was going to be long, and more time passed, more she stressed about not having enough sleep, and worst it was.

She finally went back to sleep, but when her alarm woke her up, she felt she slept for only five minutes. She knew it wasn’t true, but she knew she would have sleep at least an hour more. She’d catch up with her nap in the early afternoon.

They had a little practice on the morning. Then, they did their pregame routine. When they hit the ice, they were ready. But the game didn’t start their way. Sweden scored after 14 minutes. They went into first intermission wanting to score. They had played defence most of the period. They didn’t blame Florence to let one in. She was not a wall, even if sometimes she looked to be.

They went into second period more motivated then ever. But they didn’t manage to score despite attacking more this time. Florence let another one in during the last minutes of play of the period. They went into the locker room with their head down. They couldn’t lose. They needed to score. The coach talked to them, as well as a veteran.

They were in fire to start the period. I didn’t take two minutes to finally enter one. It was Sara Benz. Four minutes later, Alina tried to shoot but had not angle and the puck hit a Swedish player knew and bounced in direction of Phoebe Stänz direction, who finished. It was tied! They had done it. It was their period. They could win this game. Jessica Lutz gave them the lead over Sweden with about 6 minutes to play, from a beautiful Lara Stalder pass. The bench went crazy. Sweden looked shocked. Switzerland needed to keep their lead. It was their game.

With about two minutes remaining, Sweden took the risk of taking out their goalie. Alina had a shift to play, and they battle for the puck in Switzerland zone. She was in the circle at the left of Schelling, where Sweden and Switzerland battled for a puck. She was the one to get the stick on it. A Swedish defenseman was next to her, and the other one, completely at the other side of the blue line, so she just sent it in the direction of the net. Everyone looked at the puck making its way and ending up in the middle of the net. She had scored her first goal. The sealing the deal goal, making it 4-2. Or at least, with one minute to go, that’s what Alina thought. But Sweden kept their extra attacker, and they ended up putting one more in net 15 seconds later. Alina noticed they barely celebrated their goal. They had 45 seconds left. The chance of pushing it to overtime was little. But if it was not from Alina’s goal, it was tied. But her team was still winning, and Florence needed to be strong. And she did!

Everyone jumped out of the bench to celebrate, skating towards Florence Schelling, but Alina took the time. She high fived an assistant coach before skating on the ice, using a door. She then skated fast by the pile of players, where Lara waited for her, arms wide open. 

After shaking Swedish players’ hands, they celebrated for a while, and Alina almost lost her voice. Then the interviews. Alina was still not used to be stopped when entering the media zone. But it was the last time she had to do it, so she didn’t mind. They had won, they’d have their medal in a few hours.

They continued celebrating in their locker room. Then, they went up to watch Canada and USA. Switzerland was cheering on the defending gold medalist, with a few exception within the team. Alina followed the majority. Those matches were the best women’s hockey you could find, so it was exciting to watch. But USA took the lead quite fast. The teams were very equal. It would be that kind of game. Then, the Americans scored again. They were motivated to finally win it. And believed they could.

Switzerland went down when it was passed half the last period to play. They had to go down to be ready to receive their medal, and Alina was very excited about it. It didn’t feel real yet. But the excitement got her as they were back into the locker room, waiting.

Alina knew her family had gotten tickets for both bronze medal and gold medal games, so she had texted her parents a few times during the game, and now her mother was in charge of keeping the team updated. They wanted to be there when she’d receive her medal. Apparently, Canada were now leading USA, and the latest were looking at the clock. Alina estimated there was about five minutes remaining when the teenager heard screams from fans. Did USA put a third one in net, or Canada scored a first? It was hard to tell.

She received a text from her mother.

_Canada just scored._

Of course, the defending gold medalist would finally score. Alina still felt the Americans would win it. They were better lately. But Florence wanted Canada to win, so when Alina told the group about who scored, she had a big smile on her face. She respected Shannon Szabados and Charline Labonté, and the opposite was very true. Alina knew there would be picture of the goalies together from the semi final and the first game.

Fans screamed once again. This time, the Americans hit the post on an empty net. Oh well…

_They didn’t have your luck you had tonight_

It was her mother. Alina had a little smile. She knew her parents were proud. And probably even more when she put that empty netter in. It looked stupid, but maybe they wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t from it.

Lara estimated the game was almost over when the crowd went crazy. They could hear the Canada chants. They scored, clearly, and the game was tied.

_Less than a minute left. Poulin scored. Overtime._

Alina wished they had stayed in the crowd to finish watching the game. The waiting was too long. And of course it had to be Poulin. She was the youngest four years earlier and had scored both gold medal goals. She had to put one more here.

They waited another twenty minutes before they were told to go on the ice. Alina noticed the Americans crying. The Canadian players were crazy. So Canada won, without any doubts. The girls lined up to receive their medals.

Switzerland being bronze medalist, was the first team to have the medal. Someone presented the people giving the medals. Then, the girls were named one after the other, in number order. Alina was number 25, so more than half the team got it before her. She was too happy about her accomplishment to think about the fact the cameras were zooming on every girl.

She finally saw the medal plate, it was a brand new one with six medal in. The next medal was hers. She saw the person who was supposed to give hers hesitate. Looked at her. Murmured her name. Then instead of taking the first medal in a corner, the person chose a complete other medal, which was in the middle row.

The first thing Alina thought when she got her medal around her neck was it was not as heavy as she expected. Her teammate had said it was heavy, but she didn’t find it heavy at all. And for some reason, she felt stronger with it around her neck. Prouder to represent her country. And she felt more powerful. She couldn’t explain her feeling. She watched the other countries receiving their medal, and then the team left the ice to celebrate. Their interviews and doping control were already done, to Alina’s pleasure.

She asked Lara if she felt the same way. The blond woman student looked at her a weird way.

              “Why would you feel powerful and stronger with your medal? You’re so weird Alina!”

The whole team went out to celebrate. But Florence hesitated twice before getting Alina a drink.

              “You’re underage. Can I call your parents to have their approval? And I’m pretty sure I’ll have to watch you.”

Alina made big eyes to the goalie. Call her parents? Oh come on, she just wanted _one bear_! She was not going to get drunk for only one, right? She knew she was not going to drink it in a minute!

Florence murmured something about Poulin drinking alcohol in Vancouver while underage for just a month and having to excuse herself for that. So Florence wanted to make sure that first, she had parental approval, and second, no one would know. Alina rolled her eyes. Really Schelling?

She didn’t end up drunk, but a whole lot of teammates did. Alina felt she could be send to the interviews the next morning just because of that little detail. But it didn’t mean she went to bed early, oh no! She was actually one of the last to leave.

Alina was proud of how her first Olympic experience had gone, and felt it could never be beaten. But she knew she had made her place in the team. She was not going anywhere, and her coaches let her know. She was proud of herself, proud of the accomplishment the team had done. Her teammates were like family now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am not from Switzerland and I haven’t watch games in Sochi except Canada’s (I became hockey fan with the gold medal game), so if something doesn’t seem right in what I’ve said up to now, please let me know in the comments, so I can’t fix it.


	2. The new boy in my team challenges me

Alina was happy to be home with her family. She celebrated with her friends the medal. She was in her little world for a few weeks, and coming back to reality was a bit hard. Homework waited to be open, and she already feared going back to school. She had tried doing most of the work before going, but at the same time she learned a little bit too late that she was going to be Olympian to take enough advance before leaving for Russia. And with the schedule of the Olympics, it was quite hard to open your books. She had tried and failed hard.

She went back to school like nothing had happened. Only a few students would congratulate her, it was mostly coming from teachers and other adults around. Some even asked during a class where she was. But in some classes, people would scream as soon as she entered in. It was weird. Like if only 5 % of the teens knew about having an Olympian in their school, or cared about it.

She didn’t mind that much. She did not like the attention. She was like any other teen in the school. She was not the perfect student. She even struggled in most classes. She was diagnosed with ADHD. She met all the teachers she had so she knew what she needed to do in order to keep up with the group.

Even if she concentrated in hockey for the last month, she was still excited about going back to her boys’ team. She liked playing more than anything. Her mother wished she would not have gone to the first practice after coming back to catch up at school a bit, but Alina decided to go anyway.

She changed in a different locker room and saw no one in the hallways before entering the little room she was given. She’d see them once everyone would be changed. There was a boy so slow to dress up that she usually met the team on the ice instead of joining them in the locker room. Being first out there and last to leave was Alina’s mentality.

She found it odd that she saw no one before going on the ice. She was alone. She took her phone to check if they were practice day, maybe it was yesterday or tomorrow? Nope, the coach had told her to be there for that evening, at eight. It was almost eight, and no one was near to be seen.

Suddenly, everyone came in screaming loud. Chanted her name. She should have known.

There was only one boy who stayed silent and did not congratulate her when going on the ice. She had never seen him before, but the coach had told her in his email that there was a new boy. Probably him.

The practice went well, except that the new boy couldn’t stop telling her to return with the girls.

              “You’re bad as fuck, can you tell me how you went to the Olympics? You probably made your team lose or scored in your own net!” he said once, before checking her mid-ice.

She decided to ignore him. She was used to those comments, but from the teams she faced. Her teammates respected her. But for some reasons, they never heard anything coming from his mouth, or were too shy to answer him. She was not going to let him go away like this.

After a few insults like that, she decided to stand for herself. She did her best at practice, and did better than him. _How does it feel to be beaten by a girl?_ she thought. She skated faster than him!

Practices went like this for a few weeks. Her teammates took her side when they noticed. The coach threatened the boy to play fourth line at the next game if he continued. Alina didn’t like his attitude. Team first, it was not him!

Her first game coming back went well. She felt great. She tried avoiding the new boy, or not talk to him. He would not see her good plays, and remind her every few little mistakes she did. If she was mean, she’d do the same thing, but she knew it was not an attitude to have. _Do not go at his level just to prove him wrong, he doesn’t even deserve this_.

They ended up winning. She was about to go into her locker room when the coach came to her.

              “Next week we play at home, and I wanted you to bring your medal. We would like you to do the ceremonial puck drop instead of the captain, wearing your medal.”

Alina smiled. It was a good idea.

The week went by like usual, except she spent hours in homework. Ugh. She was trying to keep up in French. She was not very good in languages. She had had an interview in that language at the Olympics, and it was horrible! But it was one of the Switzerland official language, and she had to learn it.

The weekend finally came, and it was her first home game of March. And last of the season. She was near the arena when she realised.

              “Did I take my medal? Dad, I don’t remember putting it in my bag today. I think I forgot it!”

The first thing she checked at the arena was her bag. Her medal was in one of her socks. She had no clue about putting it there. She looked at her parents. They were clueless.

              “You probably put it there after we washed your equipment, so you wouldn’t forget, and you forgot about it!” her mother said.

Alina shrugged. Her mom was probably right. But she did not recall anything concerning her medal. It was weird. But she had it, and it was the most important.

She took her hockey bag and left her parents to go meet her team. She changed and joined the team to hear what the coach had to say.

              “Return in your locker room, girl!”

The new boy, Yan. She should have known.

              “And how do you want her to know what the coach is saying? The lineup? The game plan? Seriously, Yan, get over the fact you’re playing with a girl, she’s better than you! It’s our teammate like every other person here. I thought we told you at least three times!”

Alina smiled at her captain. She had not told the guy she was a medalist. It was too much for his ego. He’d seen her medal at the same time than the fans. She couldn’t wait to see his face!

Right before the game started, she went in her locker room to pick the bronze medal. She heard the other side of the door, “Let me guess, she has her period and we’ll have to wait and delay the game for a freaking tampon!”

Yan. She knew it just with the tone of the comment and how sexist it was. She just wished he was an opponent and she could punch him. She was a girl and what? And even if she had had her period, who cares? He had a mother, and maybe sisters! How could he be so sexist? Did he act the same with them? With his classmates?

She took her medal, put it in her neck but hid it in her jersey. He didn’t deserve a close look at it. She’d give it to the backup goalie for the game and ask him to put it at its place. He already knew his task.

She placed herself at the goal line for the lines calls. She advanced as she was named on the first line. The announcer had to wait before calling the rest of the starters, because people screamed. Then she heard,

              “It is a special night as we welcome back Alina Müller in our lineup. We ask the captains, as well as our Sochi bronze medalist, to join to do the ceremonial puck drop. Congratulation Alina once again for your Olympic run, and welcome home!”

Alina had a big smile. She looked at the captain, who was next to the goalie. He was next to Yan, on purpose. The new boy’s face was priceless. Her captain joined her mid ice.

              “He is pissed. He will probably insult you as soon as you see him on the bench!”

Alina didn’t care at all. They did the ceremonial puck drop, took a few pictures, the bronze medal shining more than ever before, in the lights of the arena.

She played how she always plays: she gave everything on the ice. At some point, there was a partial line change, and she got stuck to play with Yan.

              “Pass to me!” he said, twice. He was not well placed at all. There were two players on him.

The next shift they played together, he completely stole the puck from her. What the hell? She was totally fine by herself, entering in the opponent’s zone. Ugh! She hated him. He thought he was better than everyone. She had gone to the Olympics, and she didn’t even dare thinking she was better than anyone! But she was better than him. On and off the ice.

The coach was happy with his team performance. Some adjustments to make between periods, but overall, they were winning battles and face offs, and leading in goals. Alina avoided as much as possible being body checked. She had played with boys her entire life, she was totally used to it, but after playing a month with girls, she was not always on _preparing to be checked_ mode, and it was in those moments it could be dangerous. But with boys, she never hesitated to check them if needed.

The game went well. Alina’s team ended up winning as expected. She went to her locker room to change alone, like she had done the whole season. She was about to take her underwear off to go shower when the door opened.

              “Hey, I’m changing, get out!” she screamed while grabbing the closest piece of clothes to cover herself. She already had her bra off.

The door continued opening. Alina was pissed. Repeated herself, this time with an even more firm voice. It was not the coach. Alina was already facing the wall, so the person wouldn’t see her boobs, but she was sure that if she turned around, it’d be Yan. Her other teammates respected her and would never enter in Alina’s locker room. She gave a fast look behind her before putting a t-shirt on. Her new teammate.

She was putting her pants on when she heard a weird sound behind her. Not Yan’s voice, or any sound he could have done. She turned her head and saw something way too big to be a human. It was terrifying. She turned around to face it. Yan was nowhere to be seen, and exactly where he was standing was a creature so big it almost touched the ceiling. And it was the most terrorising and ugliest thing she ever seen.

              “It’s about to attack,” she had the time to think, before it went forward to attack her.

She tried running out of his way, but she had no chance. She wished she had something to protect herself. But all she had in her hands were a pair of jeans. She felt her bronze medal in one of the pockets. Like it was useful!

Alina closed her eyes. It was going to kill her, and she had nothing to defend herself with. She’s die the most stupid way possible. That was it.

She suddenly realised her hockey stick could help her as long as it didn’t break into pieces. But if she could last until someone heard her screams and came to help, noticing she was missing or something. She ran to it while looking at that hideous thing chasing her. She felt her stick and took it blindly. It felt colder and heavier than normally, but her mind was probably tricking her. She swung the stick to protect her from getting hurt when she realised she was holding a sword. She was as surprised as the monster, but she came back to her mind before it did, weirdly. So she took advantage and attacked. It was the use of it, no? She’d look at where the sword came from and how it looked like after that thing was gone. When she’d killed the beast.

It took a few minutes before that thing disappeared into dust. Alina was exhausted. She crashed on the bench. Next to her hockey stick she thought she had grabbed earlier. She questioned where the sword came from, so she took a look at it.

It was the same bronze than her medal. A meter long. It fit perfectly in her hand, like it was made for her. There was something written on the pommel. _Sochi.Ru_. Under, _Women’s hockey tournament_. Could it be…?

She looked in her pocket where she had left the medal. It was not there. She looked at the blade. Could it explain why she felt powerful when she first got the medal around her neck? Because of the power the medal held?

She heard noises in the hallway. The coach was about to knock to see her. She was still only wearing a t-shirt and underwear. Dirty from the sweat and monster dust. Did she still had time to shower?

She decided to go anyway. But she was so scared someone would find her sword, or that another monster would attack, that she took it with her. Not under the water, though, but close enough to reach it if needed.

After a quick shower that felt like heaven, she turned the water off. She could hear her teammates in the other room, and they looked like they were about to leave. She hurried up and dressed fast. Something fell out of the pocket of her jeans when she put them on. A ring. She didn’t have any. She realised her sword was not where she had left it, over the pile of clothes. She looked quickly at the ring to confirm what she thought it was. She could read Sochi.Ru in the inside of it. “Turn back into a medal,” she said softly. And so it did.

The coach knocked at the door.

              “Give me one minute, I’m not dressed yet!” Alina screamed.

              “I heard screaming from you earlier, is everything ok?”

              “Yeah, water just went cold suddenly, and I was surprised, that’s all,” Alina lied.

She quickly finished and joined the team. The coach looked at her with a worried face.

              “You did not have that mark when you left the ice. What happen to your head?”

Alina suddenly noticed her head hurting a little. She touched it, and realised it was bleeding a little. Not too bad, it was stopping. Usually, hits to the head bled a lot, how did she had not noticed before? Adrenaline?

              “It’s nothing, I slipped in the shower,” she lied again. It made sense to tell that, because she was pretty sure she had screamed more than once during the monster attack.

She felt her energy crashing. She suddenly felt very dizzy and did not feel great at all. She almost fainted in the coach’s arms.

              “You need to see a doctor. I’m telling your parents. You probably hit your head a little too hard. You might have a concussion too, and I want people to look over you.”

Great. Now she’d go to the hospital. The coach talked to her parents before they all left. Her dad decided not to bring her yet. Her dad took care of the injury when they got home. She just wanted to go to sleep, even if she knew she’d wake up with nightmares. But she knew her dad wouldn’t let her.

She crashed into the sofa. The teenager wanted to cry. Her heart was still pounding like crazy. What had happened? She thought she could have died. Panic took over her. What if a monster attacked again? She looked at her mother, who was also in the living room, calmly looking at the tv. She didn’t even notice her daughter was tense. Her husband was in charge of Alina, so she didn’t look worried at all. Alina was almost thankful, because she felt her father was going to ask her a thousand question for the next couple of hours.

              “That was a good game, sweetheart” her father said, coming in with a beer in hand from the kitchen. “You don’t look your normal. Are you sure you are ok? You gave too much and feel nauseous or it’s because you hit your head? Did you feel like that before slipping in the shower?”

              Have you ever notice things you never thought could happen? Or got the impression what you were facing could be a dream because it made nonsense at all?”

Her father looked at her with curiosity, before nodding. Alina didn’t know how to take his nod.

              “I once had a weird meeting. Can you tell me what happened?”

Alina hesitated. Was her father going to say she was crazy? She took a deep breath. She was nervously playing with the object that saved her life.

              “I fought a monster. A real one. A creature. And my medal saved me.”

Her mother looked at her like she was completely stupid. Asked if she’s taken drugs and asked if she was feeling ok. Suddenly she worried about that head injury! But even Alina wondered if it was real or if someone had put something in her bottle of water without her knowing. She hoped someone did. She preferred being drugged without consent than having a concussion. But there she was…

Her father cleaned his voice. Both Alina and her mom turned to him.

              “I was hoping I’d never have to tell you, that this day would never come. You are not a normal kid. You just never known because I didn’t want you to. And Hebe hid her wishes by getting your mother pregnant with her baby. Like she usually does when the man needs to hide his affair.”

Alina thought her mother would faint or hit him.

              “I don’t understand what you are saying. What affair? What is the matter with Alina? I cannot be pregnant of someone else’s baby if you are the father…”

              “I loved her. But we couldn’t raise together a baby together, she is not part of us, and you would have known, we already had Mirco… So, she got you pregnant of Alina, but told me it was her baby and not yours. I made love to you that week just so it could fit. Until this day, I hoped she was wrong, that she was not hers. I never seen any monster or mythological creature around. I thought she was safe. I never should have listened to that damn Greek goddess!”

Alina’s dad looked like he was about to cry, but Alina couldn’t tell if he really meant his regrets. And her mother, she was furious.

              “You cheated on me? And you call her a goddess! Bastard!”

She left the room in a hurry. Alina wished she could do the same. She was pissed at his father. Cheating on her mother, really? But Alina could be in danger. She didn’t know, maybe a monster was waiting for her to go outside and would attack her with her mother. Her father had admitted it was real… She had to ask questions to her dad.

The man saw his daughter was to stay in the living room with him. At her face, he knew she needed explanations. And for the moment, telling Alina the truth was more important than running after his wife to calm her. Anyway, she would probably not want to hear it. Alina hoped it wouldn’t lead to a divorce, by her fault.

              “Before you ask, Alina, I have to tell you. It was probably a real monster. I believe you. But I don’t get how you medal saved you. I don’t even want to know that part actually. You are here in one piece, and that’s what matters. But you need to know now. You are a demigod. This is very dangerous. You can die from both mortal or godly things. But there are positive things: there is a camp where you will be safe, where it’s protected, and where you’ll learn how to fight. It can be either for the summer, or the whole year. I’d feel better knowing you are safe there than having you here, even if I’ll miss you.”

              “I always been ok, why now leaving? And I have hockey, I don’t think I’ll play in a camp. And if it took sixteen years before a monster attacked, maybe I won’t be attacked again before I turn thirty! Why I am suddenly in danger?”

              “Monsters attacks more when a demigod knows who he is. Your blood smells more, Hebe said. That’s why I tried keeping it for as long as I could. To protect you. I thought at first about telling you when you turned ten or twelve. But I realised it would be too dangerous.”

              “So my mother is a goddess. Who is she?”

              “Hebe. Goddess of the youth. That’s also why she can get other people pregnant with her babies.”

Alina took a few minutes to take it in. She did not realise it yet. She was a freaking demigod! Her medal was probably a weapon of some sort. Magical, probably. She had a thousand of questions, but clearly, her father would not be able to help her out.

The next days were weird. Alina barely slept, due to nightmares. Also, she was stressed. Her parents were not very ok. Fighting. She couldn’t blame her mother, though. If she had a boyfriend and he had cheated on her, she’d feel the same way for sure. She blamed her dad. Why? Why did he screw their life like that?

She decided to google about demigods. Her researches did not lead to anything except Greek mythology, but nothing about god still living. Her father entered in her room at the time.

              “Don’t use technology. It attracts monsters. I never told you because I thought you were not a demigod. You’ll go to the camp this summer and you’ll learn all the things you need to know ok? I know you’re curious, and it’s alright. But please, not before the summer. I am discussing with your mom on when we’re sending you.”

              “Dad, I have hockey, I can’t spend my whole year in a summer camp! And what about school? I’m pretty sure Switzerland and USA system is quite different!”

Alina knew her mom didn’t want her to go anyway. They were fighting for this, and a lot of stuff. Suddenly, her mom was telling everything that bothered her in the last years, and that she kept for herself all that time. Alina was scared they’d divorce.

Time passed, and it was not getting better. And since her parents barely talked to each other, so they never took any decision concerning Alina. Alina was scared all the stuff happening would show on her grades. She had missed a month of school, and now could barely concentrate, thinking of her family situation, or would look at the window all the time, in case a monster shows up. Substitute teachers were her nightmare. The only positive thing is that Alina didn’t feel any concussion symptoms after the monster injured her.


End file.
